BlackRock manages money for other people and earns a fee based on how much money it looks after. Pension funds, insurance companies, central banks, and ordinary investors all pay BlackRock to handle their savings and investments. The more money BlackRock manages, and the higher the value of markets, the more revenue it collects. On top of those recurring fees, BlackRock sells a software platform called Aladdin that other big financial firms pay to use for managing risk. At the end of 2025, BlackRock had $14.0 trillion in assets under management, making it the largest investment manager in the world. The diagram below traces where the money goes.
How BlackRock Makes Money
flowchart LR
A["Client Assets
14.0 trillion dollars"] --> B["Investment Management
Active, Index, Private Markets"]
B --> C["Base Fees & Securities Lending
19.2 billion dollars"]
A --> D["Technology Services
Aladdin, eFront, Preqin"]
D --> E["Technology Revenue
2.0 billion dollars"]
B --> F["Performance Fees
1.4 billion dollars"]
C --> G["Total Revenue
24.2 billion dollars"]
E --> G
F --> G
G --> H["Operating Income
7.0 billion dollars, 29% margin"]
H --> I["Reinvest in Research,
Data, Innovation"]
I --> B
I --> D
H --> J["Net Inflows
698 billion dollars"]
J --> A
Five years of financial data tell a clear story about direction. Revenue was $19.4 billion in 2021, dipped to $17.9 billion in both 2022 and 2023 when markets fell, then climbed to $20.4 billion in 2024, and jumped to $24.2 billion in 2025. The jump from 2024 to 2025 was partly organic, partly driven by the acquisitions of two large private investment firms, HPS Investment Partners and Global Infrastructure Partners. Assets under management grew from $10.0 trillion at the end of 2021 to $14.0 trillion at the end of 2025, a compound annual growth rate of 10%.
BlackRock Annual Revenue (2021 to 2025)
Revenue in billions of US dollars. The 2022 to 2023 dip reflects market declines reducing the value of assets BlackRock charges fees on. The 2025 surge reflects both market recovery and new acquisitions.
That revenue growth came with a trade-off on margins. The GAAP operating margin fell from 38.5% in 2021 to 29.1% in 2025. The decline reflects large costs tied to acquiring HPS and GIP, including noncash expenses like the changing value of contingent payments to former owners and the amortization of acquired assets. When those one-time acquisition costs are stripped out, the adjusted operating margin was 44.1% in 2025, nearly flat with 44.5% in 2024. Free cash flow was $4.4 billion in 2022, fell to $3.8 billion in 2023, recovered to $4.7 billion in 2024, and came in at $3.6 billion in 2025. The 2025 dip in free cash flow coincides with the heaviest acquisition activity.
$698B
Net new money clients added in 2025, a record for BlackRock
The record $698 billion of net inflows in 2025 shows that clients are still actively adding money to BlackRock's platform, not just staying put. ETFs alone pulled in $527 billion of that total. BlackRock's iShares ETF range held $5.5 trillion at year-end, making it the world's largest ETF provider. Technology services also grew, with annual contract value for Aladdin and related products rising 16% in 2025.
What is an ETF?
An ETF, or exchange-traded fund, is a basket of investments like stocks or bonds that trades on a stock exchange like a single share. Investors use ETFs to get broad exposure to markets cheaply and quickly. BlackRock's iShares brand is the biggest ETF provider in the world.
The biggest shift in BlackRock's business over the last two years is its push into private markets. Private markets include things like infrastructure projects, private loans to companies, and real estate that are not traded on public stock exchanges. In 2024, BlackRock acquired Global Infrastructure Partners. In 2025, it acquired HPS Investment Partners, a large private credit manager, adding $118 billion of fee-paying assets. It also acquired Preqin, a data company focused on private markets. Together, these moves cost billions and significantly increased the complexity of the business.
2025
milestone
BlackRock becomes a private markets giant
The acquisitions of GIP, HPS, and Preqin within 12 months transformed BlackRock from a firm known mostly for index funds and ETFs into one of the top five alternatives managers in the world, with roughly $676 billion in alternative client assets. The company has set a target of raising $400 billion in private markets by 2030.
Specific risks are documented and worth naming clearly. First, BlackRock's revenue rises and falls with market values. When stock and bond markets drop, the assets BlackRock charges fees on shrink, and so does its revenue. This happened in 2022 when revenue fell from $19.4 billion to $17.9 billion. Second, every client can leave at any time. Many funds must be re-approved each year by independent board members. If large clients withdraw money, BlackRock loses the fees tied to that money with little notice. Third, the new private markets businesses carry specific risks. Infrastructure and private credit involve long-term, illiquid commitments in construction projects and corporate loans that can take years to pay off and may not perform as expected. BlackRock also holds approximately $4.9 billion of its own money in investments that can lose value when markets fall.
$91B
Committed but not yet deployed capital in private markets strategies at year-end 2025
The $91 billion of committed but uninvested capital represents money clients have promised to hand over but have not yet sent. Deploying that capital successfully into real infrastructure and credit deals is now a key operational task. The Aladdin software platform adds another layer of risk. Many large financial institutions depend on Aladdin to run their daily operations. If Aladdin suffers an outage, a cyberattack, or fails to keep pace with client demands, those institutions could reduce their reliance on it, costing BlackRock both fee revenue and reputation. Cybersecurity risk is specifically flagged as a concern, given the enormous amounts of sensitive financial data BlackRock stores and processes.
What does Aladdin do?
Aladdin is BlackRock's software platform that helps financial institutions track and manage risk across their entire portfolio of investments. Clients pay recurring subscription fees to use it. It is separate from BlackRock's investment management business and adds a technology revenue stream on top of management fees.
44.1%
Adjusted operating margin in 2025, showing underlying profitability once acquisition costs are excluded
The Bet
BlackRock is betting that private markets, including infrastructure, private credit, and real assets, will become a standard part of every major client's portfolio, not just a niche addition. If that shift happens at scale, the higher fees earned on private assets will lift BlackRock's average fee rate and sustain revenue growth even as ETFs and index funds continue to compress fees on their side of the business. If private markets adoption among wealth and institutional clients stalls, or if the acquired businesses, GIP, HPS, and Preqin, fail to attract the new capital BlackRock is targeting, the $400 billion by 2030 ambition falls short and the billions paid in acquisition costs weigh on returns without a matching revenue payoff.
Open question
BlackRock has the scale, the brand, and the distribution to make private markets mainstream for retirement savers and wealth advisors. But integrating three major acquisitions simultaneously, while deploying $91 billion of committed capital into real-world projects and managing a software platform that the global financial system depends on, is an enormous operational challenge. Can BlackRock successfully bring private markets to mass-market clients fast enough to offset fee compression in its index and ETF business, or will the weight of acquisition costs and integration complexity drag on earnings before that new revenue engine reaches full speed?
Compiled · 10-K · FY2025
Market Volatility and Asset Values
BlackRock's main business is charging fees based on the total value of money it manages for clients. When stock markets, bond markets, or other investments fall in value, or when clients move their money to lower-fee products, BlackRock's revenue and profits drop significantly. The company also owns about 4.9 billion dollars in its own investments that can lose value when markets decline.
Client Contracts and Fund Withdrawals
BlackRock's clients can cancel their contracts or withdraw their money at any time, and many of BlackRock's mutual funds must be approved each year by independent board members. If multiple large clients leave or if shareholders push to shut down funds, BlackRock loses the fees it charges on that money.
Private Markets Integration Risk
BlackRock recently acquired two major private investment firms (GIP and HPS) and is expanding into private equity and private credit. These investments are hard to sell quickly, take years to show profits, and involve complex risks in construction projects, real estate, and infrastructure that BlackRock may not fully control.
Aladdin Platform Operational Risk
Aladdin is BlackRock's critical software platform that major clients depend on. The platform is growing rapidly across many countries and relies on third-party cloud providers and data sources. If the platform fails, gets hacked, or cannot keep up with growth, major clients could leave and BlackRock's business would suffer.
Cybersecurity and Data Breach Risk
BlackRock stores and manages vast amounts of sensitive client financial information and uses cloud technology and artificial intelligence that create new security gaps. A successful cyber-attack could expose confidential information, disrupt operations, cost millions in response, and damage client trust permanently.
10-K Item 1A · Risk Factors
